


Why Me?

by Howlingdawn



Category: 9-1-1: Lone Star (TV 2020)
Genre: Family, Family Bonding, Fluff, Gen, Hurt/Comfort
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-07
Updated: 2020-05-07
Packaged: 2021-03-02 22:41:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,027
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24064483
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Howlingdawn/pseuds/Howlingdawn
Summary: Shortly after adopting their second child, a nine-year-old girl, TK takes her to visit the station. While they're there, she asks him a question: “So why did you adopt me?”
Relationships: TK Strand & Original Child Character(s)
Comments: 5
Kudos: 67
Collections: 9-1-1 Lone Star Week





	Why Me?

**Author's Note:**

> Written for Lone Star Week - Day 5 - Future Canon - I think we're going to be just okay.

TK led Isabela into the station, nerves making his heart race, but he knew what he was feeling would be nothing compared to the whatever his and Carlos’s potential daughter was feeling, so he hid it. At all of nine years old, she already knew the pain of being lost and abandoned, so she hovered, not quite near him, not quite away from him, warily taking in the unfamiliar surroundings, and he resisted the urge to take her hand and gather her close. If she wanted to trust him to protect her, that was her decision.

“This looks… nice,” she said.

“My dad likes to make sure we have the best of everything,” TK told her.

Despite her caution, curiosity got the better of her. “Your dad’s your boss?”

“Yup,” he said, pointing at where he was making himself an espresso. “That’s him. The big guy next to him is Judd – he’s got a daughter your age. I think you’ll like her.”

She was considering that when the faint clack of claws on the floor announced Buttercup’s arrival. Isabela brightened considerably, dropping to her knees and opening her arms to him. “¡ _Perrito_!”

He wagged his tail, barely paying TK any mind before greeting her with an enthusiastic lick on the cheek. She giggled, eagerly petting his thick fur, and TK’s heart melted as he watched her let her defenses down for the first time throughout the adoption process. “This is Buttercup. Buttercup, this is Isabela.”

“He likes you.”

Her hands stilled in his fur, her stance tensing as she looked up to watch his dad walk over to them. “I like him too,” she admitted, straightening up.

“Then you must be an excellent judge of character,” Dad praised. He offered her the hand that wasn’t holding his espresso. “I’m Owen.”

Hesitantly, she shook it. “Isabela.”

Dad smiled, tucking his hand loosely in his pocket. “TK tells me you like dragons.”

She crossed her arms. “I do.”

“Then you might like this.”

He pulled his hand right back out of his pocket, but now he held a palm-sized stuffed animal. TK’s jaw dropped, recognizing the well-loved toy, the flattened, somewhat faded fur that had once been thick and vibrantly green. “You still have him?”

“Mhm.” Owen knelt in front of Isabela, holding out the little dragon. “This was TK’s when he was little. Dragons were his favorite thing, and if he ever did anything wrong, he tried to blame it on his imaginary dragon friend. He grew out of it – mostly – but I kept this little guy around for a special occasion. I think welcoming you into my family qualifies.”

Isabela took him slowly, eyes wide as she brushed a finger over the somewhat ripped edge of one wing. “You’re just… giving him to me?”

“Of course,” Dad said. “Family heirlooms are meant to be passed on, after all.”

She was silent for a long moment before eventually looking up at TK. “Can I ask you something?”

“Anything.”

She bit her lip. “People usually adopt babies.”

“They do,” TK said.

“So why did you adopt me?”

TK knelt, taking a breath as he chose his words carefully. “My husband and I did try that,” he admitted. “But not for you. See, Carlos and I decided we wanted kids nine years ago.”

She furrowed her brows. “Amelia’s only five.”

“Exactly,” TK said. “She was our fourth try at having a baby. The first two times we tried to adopt, their mothers decided to keep them at the last minute, and the third time-” He hesitated, the memory of the crash that caused their first surrogate to miscarry still an agonizing memory. “Well, something bad happened that time. It was only after that that Amelia was born. And when we decided to adopt a second time, we didn’t want to risk going through that again.”

She squeezed the dragon. “So I’m a way to avoid making you sad.”

“Partially,” TK allowed. “But I was just telling you that to be honest. There’s another much, much more important reason.”

“What?” she asked warily.

“Our jobs are to save people,” he explained. “We picked those jobs because the world can be a dark, scary place, but we want to make it better. Sometimes we do that by rescuing a kitten stuck in a tree. Sometimes we save people on the worst day of their lives. But sometimes… sometimes it goes beyond the job. It’s a calling. And one day, we talked it over, and when we decided that we wanted to make our family bigger, we realized that the best way for us to make someone’s world a little better was not by waiting another four years for a baby with plenty of people clamoring to adopt it, but by taking in an older kid who thinks no one will want them.”

“And that kid was me,” Isabela finished.

TK nodded. “I know we’re still basically strangers, Isabela, and you don’t really have much reason to trust any of us, but I will make you this promise: The last couple who wanted to adopt you thought keeping you would be too difficult, but Carlos and I will never give up on you. For better or worse, you’re our daughter now, and we will do everything we can to give you a home you can be happy in.”

He reached out, pausing in midair, and at her nod, he gently tucked a loose strand of dark hair behind her ear. “And when you’re ready to call us your dads, well, that might just be the happiest day of our lives.”

She sniffled. “Really?”

“Yeah,” TK murmured, tears beginning to brim in his eyes as he saw her walls begin to crumble. “You want a hug, kiddo?”

“Yes,” she whispered.

TK pulled her close, cupping the back of his head, and felt his nerves melt away as she returned the hug. It was their first hug, and something told him it was far from their last.

Looking up, he saw his dad smiling at them, and he smiled back, addressing his next words to both of them: “I think we’re gonna be just ok.”

**Author's Note:**

> I headcanoned in my one fic Delicate that TK blamed something on a dragon and now I refuse to let go of that ever lol
> 
> (Also this is like 11 years after s1 but I refuse to accept that Buttercup will die so he's just there don't question it)


End file.
